Simpler Student Loan Process Coming?
Sunday October 5, 2008
The six-page-long Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form includes more than 120 questions, including three that ask how old you are in three different ways. That's the kind of needless complexity Sec. of Education Margaret Spellings says keeps some 8 million students from applying for federal student aid. "It makes you wish for tax day," Spellings said in a speech at Harvard University. The good news is, she wants to change all that.
Under Spelling's proposal to Congress, the number of questions on the FAFSA form would be cut from more than 120 to only 27. In addition, her proposed streamlining process would allow students to learn how much federal aid they might qualify for before their senior year of high school.
"This new form, coupled with other financial aid reforms, will provide real-time information on how much aid you can expect to receive, as opposed to how much you and your family are expected to contribute under the current system," said Sec. Spellings. "This will put you in the driver's seat, with more time to investigate your options."
Also See:
Federal Student Aid Primer
Federal Direct Student Loans
Stafford Student Loans
Comments
Funny you should write this today: I will start completing this form in the next couple days.
I agree that the forms should be shortened, by what annoyed me most when I was filling them out with my father was that there are several relevant questions that aren’t asked. Primarily when they ask for your parents income, they did not ask how many other children in college my father had to support. The mortgage on my parents house, loans for their cars, and my two siblings and my college tuitions are the largest loans and financial credits my father has but all they asked was for his annual income last year and the house mortgage. If the financial aid forms are to be changed, I think they should add questions regarding what other large payments are our parents making and not simply how much they make a year and decide how much money to grant basically just off that number alone.
Been there, done that, read the book, and wrote it. The student loan process is intentionally meant to deter. It is also meant to punish those who are trying to make it on their own.
When I first applied to be an undergraduate I was in a unique situation. My parents did not have the money to even pay for my books at college, and my father in a lot of debt due to tax leans, credit, and recent bankruptcy. Therefore I was making money on my own and attempting to get loans for myself. However because I was not married, under 25, and not veteran everyone I would contact (from finical aid counselors to the people in the Department of Education) treated me like crap and or played “dumb”.
Even though I received NO finical support during the entire time I was an undergraduate, I still could not apply for loans, scholarships, and student aid on my own. My father be grudgingly file taxes and give up his W2s and my mother did not work (if she did it was temporary.)
Every year it was a waiting game, I would go to school, apply for student aid, the School’s finical aid office would sit on it, then the student accounts office would bombard me with letters and phones demanding their money. At the last minute my father would give up his W2s or file taxes, apply for loans (only to have them rejected)and then I would have to go right behind him and apply. On more than one occasion the university locked my accounts and held my transcripts only to release them after I was approved for ridiculously high rate loans, or the left over student aid/grant money (which was slim to none). I had to do this “dance” every year for four years. The “expected family contribution” is what I had to pay out of pocket or either via another loan.
Eventually I graduated after four years, with a gpa well over 3.0, and consecutive Dean’s list during my last three semesters.
However now, because I lack a “graduate/professional” degree employers in my field (especially on the Federal side) refuse to hire me or even consider me as a candidate.